Hi everyone,
I'm new to all this. I was taken ill in the US on holiday two weeks ago on the first day of a long awaited trip with my other half. We're both in the late stages of getting divorced from previous partners (nothing to do with one another I should add), so we're looking forward to a break after a hard year. I was admitted to hospital with severe abdominal pain the morning after we arrived. Within a couple of hours, a CT scan revealed masses on both of my ovaries and evidence that it had spread elsewhere. I had absolutely no previous symptoms at all. Nothing.
Two weeks on, I am facing a stage 4b diagnosis at the age of 40. Expecting debulking surgery in the next week or so, along with the immediate menopause that will bring on. I don't have children (due to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time) and, despite my age, still had a tiny little vain hope of doing so. Life was already disrupted by divorce, a home move, new relationship and my new partner's divorce. Now it is just a complete mess.
I am considering some counselling and wondering if anyone has gone through that process and found it useful. I can't help but think that it is likely just a case of being told to try to keep ones chin up, taking each day as it comes, accepting that there will be terrible days and better days and appreciating any small daily joys that are taken for granted. Does anyone have any experience, good or bad? I find life strange, wandering around knowing that I have cancer and thinking about how long it might have been there, slowly beavering away, wondering which people around me might have the same but just not know it yet.